If you were hoping for the whole-enchilada gala experience this week, preperformance dinner packages are, once again, sold out for the San Francisco Symphony opening-night gala on Wednesday. And those same ducats are thisclose to capacity for “Passione,” the Friday-night San Francisco Opera Ball.

That said, concert-only tickets remain for both glittering events and also provide access to each of the cultural organization’s post-party frolics.

There’s special sizzle this year for the Symphony gala, led by chairwoman Lisa Goldman, which is trumpeting the 20th anniversary of the tenure of maestro Michael Tilson Thomas, a rare numerical feat among American orchestras.

And Thomas is thrilled to share the stage and orchestra with a friend, singer Bonnie Raitt, and Yuja Wang, an acclaimed, 27-year-old concert pianist whom Thomas discovered.

During a recent grand benefactor party, hosted by Opera Board trustee Jack Calhoun and his husband, attorney Trent Norris, General Director David Gockley was equally enthusiastic about the Opera’s 92nd opening-night season.

“Our production of 'Norma’ is the stunner of my nine-year tenure with the Opera. Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky is the Callas, Sutherland and Sills of her generation,” he exclaimed, with a joking aside: “And this opera is only 21/4 hours long. So we can get back to the ball and continue the party.”

That party is being led by co-chairwomen Teresa Medearis and Cynthia Schreuder, with the Ball’s “Passione” theme being executed in City Hall’s grand Rotunda by designer J. Riccardo Benavides.

Considering that the Roman-era plot involves magical forests, a panoply of gods, centurions, star-crossed lovers and Druids, Benavides has a full and colorful palette to pull from.

“I can’t reveal all the details,” he said. “But think along the lines of flying lions, candelight and a 15-foot-wide, rotating moon at the top of the Rotunda stairs.”

Such splendor was also evident, yet expressed in an understated fashion, in the elegantly appointed home of Norris and Calhoun.

Calhoun doubled as architect and designer for the extensive revamp of their 1905 Pacific Heights residence, which was originally built for San Francisco Mayor Eugene Schmitz and most recently served as the longtime residence for the Norwegian Consulate.

“Buying this from the Norwegian government was complicated enough,” said Calhoun. “But when the sale had to be approved by Parliament, it put the process over the top.”

Guests were invited to wander about the four-story home as musicians Freddy Clarke and Julio Reyes serenaded swells while they nibbled from silver platters filled with gourmet goodies by Becker Crowley Catering.

“Go take a look around,” Calhoun casually instructed arriving guests. “I think people have already been through my closet.”

Not surprisingly, the studio-size, walk-in closet of this Banana Republic global president is meticulously structured and organized by color, item of clothing and crowned by a stack of bright orange Hermès boxes. The rack of shoes alone was swoon-worthy.

Appreciating the operatic flavor of this couple’s sartorial and design sense, Gockley expressed high praise in a sotto voce aside: “Jack and Trent are just so chic in everything they do — it’s almost enough to drive average-attired people crazy.”